Better Place Project with Steve Norris

Daniel Blevins is a salon owner, social media influencer, LGBTQ+ advocate, activist and founder of Stand In Pride.  Daniel and his husband of 22 years reside in rural East Tennessee. He’s a proud father of two children and three grandchildren.

Daniel founded the Facebook group Stand In Pride in early 2021, the group has since grown to over 36k members, with members in over 70 countries. The success of the group has gained national and international recognition in news publications including USA Today and People magazine as well as being featured on NBC news and The Today Show.
Outside of the salon and advocacy work he enjoys spending time with his family, painting, gardening and volunteering with local charity organizations.

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
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To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

This week's Feel Good Friday episode shines a light on Bernadette Russell from the UK, who after having a random positive experience in a post office, decided to commit to doing an act of kindness for 365 consecutive days.  The experience would change her life forever! 

Steve chats about Bernadette's story, while playing clips from her BBC 4 appearance, while also sharing some fascinating findings that have just come in after the completion of the world's largest study on kindness, conducted by the University of Sussex, involving 60,000 volunteers.  There is so much to learn from this study about the benefits to the world when we are kind to each other.  And the good news is that kindness is all around us!

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

In this episode, Steve and Brad chat about the Power of Kindness, the ripple effect of kindness, what Kindness means to Brad, how it effects us physiologically when we do acts of kindness, and you’re definitely going to love the stories he shares from his book about amazing humans doing breathtaking acts of kindness.

Brad Aronson is the author of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time.  All proceeds from his book go to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Brad is deeply involved with youth nonprofits, and he’s on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters and Hopeworks. Brad also teaches entrepreneurship to students in Camden, NJ. Everyone in his class starts their own business, which has led to many adventures in entrepreneurship. 

Brad and his family— his wife, Mia, their son Jack and their dog Perry—live in Philadelphia.

For more information about Brad and his book, please visit:
https://www.bradaronson.com/

For more information about Kara Bitar's Manifestation Blueprint Sessions, please visit:
https://www.karanicolebitar.com/ and click "Optimization Sessions."

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

For today’s story, we are featuring a fellow podcaster…but not just any ordinary podcaster.  We go to Duluth Minnesota, where Fr. Mike Schmitz, a catholic priest, along with renowned bible scholar Jeff Cavins, have been stealing headlines all over the world for their podcast that they launched last year.   

 In the podcast, called “The Bible in a Year,” Fr. Mike walks the listeners through the entire Bible in 365 episodes, providing commentary, reflection, and prayer along the way.

But on this podcast, they follow a plan inspired by The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, developed by Cavins. For each period in the timeline, Jeff and Fr. Mike record an episode and help the listener understand the context of each reading.

Well, the podcast took off.  In fact, it exploded, rising through the ranks to become the top-rated podcast on the planet, currently at over 238 million downloads!

For more information, please visit:
https://organicmentalhealthcenter.com/

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

Kelli Foulkrod is a holistic psychotherapist, trauma-informed yoga teacher, and healing arts practitioner based in Austin, Texas and licensed in Colorado.  She has been working in the mental health field for 21 years and for the past 12 years, she has managed her private practice, Organic Mental Health Center.  Kelli supports pregnant and postpartum women, reproductive trauma, grief and loss, psychosis, bipolar, OCD, psychiatric drug withdrawal and healing trauma and PTSD. 

By integrating somatic modalities and energy practices with Internal Family Systems and depth psychology, a holistic approach to healing is offered.  Kelli believes each individual is their own healer and re-frames the current model of giving authority over to an expert for healing. For 12 years, Kelli has been passionate about assisting new moms into their initiation into motherhood and offering holistic healing options outside of the pharmaceutical industry.

Kelli has worked in a variety of academic and clinical settings.  Kelli’s time working for a clinic bringing SSRIs to market with FDA approval process opened her eyes to the corruption in the pharmaceutical industry; this sparked a paradigm shift in the way she approaches mental health healing.  She has been apprenticing in earth based healing traditions for eight years, and learned a variety of energy balancing techniques. Kelli has training in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy and currently offers integration services only. 

Kelli believes the mental health system in America is based on oppression and works to advocate for informed consent. She is currently working on a startup to create a regenerative mental health farm, as an alternative to traditional inpatient psychiatric hospitals in service to psychiatric drug withdrawal and trauma healing.  She has created a nonprofit organization, Earth Pharma, to play a part in the paradigm shift.

For more information, please visit:
https://organicmentalhealthcenter.com/

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

For this week’s story, we head to Wisconsin.  Steve stumbled across a project called “Love Wisconsin,” whose mission is to use storytelling and social media to bring about a more connected, compassionate, and engaged Wisconsin.

In this episode, Steve reads and essay written by Yia Lor that was published in the Wisconsin Historical Society Press' book ‘Hope Is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic’.   Yia, whose parents came to Wisconsin as refugees of the Vietnam War, writes about coming from a long line of farmers and growing up working long hours barefoot in the mud with her five siblings.

In this gentle story, Yia contemplates how she can preserve history through her stories.  "This past year I’ve been thinking about how to hold on to what it means to be Hmong. How can I hold on to this part of me that is really important? How can I be that seed that continues?"

Special thanks to "Love Wisconsin."  For more information, please visit:
https://www.lovewi.com/
and the Wisconsin Historical Society Press:
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

Matthew Fray is a relationship coach and writer who leans on the lessons of his failed marriage and divorce to help others avoid making the same mistakes. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Times and The Sunday Times of London, The Daily Mail, Salon, Huffington Post, as well as with television programs The Tamron Hall Show in the United States and ITV's This Morning in the United Kingdom. He is the author of "This is How Your Marriage Ends: A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships." And his blog, Must Be This Tall To Ride has a dedicated following which has reached millions of readers.

For more information, please visit:
https://matthewfray.com/

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

For today’s story, we go all the way back to 1887 when a group of men put Susanna Salter’s name on a ballot for mayor as a joke intended to humiliate her and put women in their place. Well, the joke backfired and she won over 60% of the vote and became American’s first female mayor.

Susanna Madora Salter (née Kinsey; March 2, 1860 – March 17, 1961) was an American politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected to serve as mayor in the United States (Nancy Smith was the first woman elected mayor in the United States, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, but chose not to serve) and one of the first women to serve in any political office in the U.S

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website: www.BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

Kara Nicole Bitar is an Optimization Coach and Kundalini Yoga Teacher.  She helps her clients live the happiest, healthiest and most successful versions of themselves.  She holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and worked in high-stakes corporate litigation at one of the largest law firms in the Southeast. She combines the dedication and commitment that it took to become a successful attorney, real-life training in what it takes to succeed at high-levels, and extensive research, experience and training in how to optimize our lives.  She is also a KRI Certified Instructor of Kundalini Yoga, Reiki Master, Certified ThetaHealing® Practitioner and Certified SoulRealignment® Practitioner. 

For more information on Kara and her services, please visit:
https://www.karanicolebitar.com/

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject
 
To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:
 
Website: BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]

For this week’s story, we head to Ukraine, which we all know is in the middle of a war with Russia right now, and we shine a light on Levgen Klopotenko, who was the winner of Master Chef Ukraine in 2015 and is one of the best known chefs in the country. Klopotenko owned a restaurant in Kiev, but fled the day that Russia invaded.  Klopotenko can’t leave the country because he is a man of fighting age and will have to fight if called.  He says he’ll fight if he gets the call, but that he probably wouldn’t be much help, as he's not nearly as good with a gun as he is with a chef's knife.

Klopotenko is now in the western city of Lviv and has opened up a restaurant called “Inshni,” which means “others.”  But what makes this restaurant unique is that it offers free meals, no questions asked, to anyone who asks for menu #2.  And menu #2 is no ordinary meal…it’s a gourmet meal made by one of the best, in an act of kindness for his fellow countrymen and women.  His mission is to feed the refugees who have fled their war torn neighborhoods and in many cases, are on their way to Poland, with nothing to eat.  The meals are paid for by Klopotenko, donations, and customers who order and pay for menu #1, which attracts people trying to support the cause, who also may want to meet the celebrity chef.

To become a Better Place Project Member (and receive free BPP Merch) and support our show, please visit:
https://www.patreon.com/Betterplaceproject
 
To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:
 
Website: BetterPlaceProject.org
(Leave us a voice message directly from the home page of our website)

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj
  
  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:
 @SteveNorrisOfficial
  @Erinorris

To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:

Website:
https://www.betterplaceproject.org/

Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj

To follow Steve on Instagram
@SteveNorrisOfficial

Facebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcast
Twitter: @BetterPlaceProj
Email: [email protected]